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Marta Soul - Idilios

Marta Soul is a Spanish photographer founding member of NOPHOTO, a collective of contemporary photographers aiming to the making of "unconventional" individual and collective projects. As she writes on her website, her projects "reflect on the interplay between images and reality, as well as the mutual influence that each has on the other’s meaning". She describes herself as "interested in exploring contemporary society and the way it determines roles for identity, sexuality, culture, and appearance". For her debut series on 591 I selected some pictures of her most known exhibition: "Idilios".

(click on the images for better viewing)

"Idilios (Spanish lyrical word for ‘romances’) shows a series of romantic recreations based on amorous experiences represented by the same woman (the artist’s alter ego) kissing different men in various places.

The series is constructed in an ideal context in order to accentuate the romantic love experience. A jewelry shop, a golf course and a luxury hotel appear as appropriate sites in which to stage romance. Experiences are more intense and happiness is materialized.

The kiss is the main act and the only one, a symbol of the stereotyped romantic situation. Immediate satisfaction is found in the kiss. It begins and ends the entire narrative scene and is the iconography element of the image. What the red-headed star of the series does is consume that moment as fully as possible."

"Yes, it is all about consuming. The man appears as the woman’s partenaire: he is just one more element, not a co-star, and therefore he changes with the setting. The action is dehumanised to some extent by this reiteration of instants that give priority to light, luxury and form over emotions. Constant renewal seems to be the only path to reach our ideal, which is perhaps more in line with an advertising slogan than with any other belief.

The reflection in this work originates in trying to understand how we integrate our emotions into a consumer lifestyle in which everything has to be attractive yet has an expiry date because there is a constant search to change for something better."

All photographs, (C) Marta Soul

- Born: Madrid- Photographic Education: "I studied photography during three years in a school of visual arts, but my own experience is what taught me the most."

- Living in:Madrid, "but I have spent a lot of time in Liverpool and Los Angeles lately (and inside airplanes)."

- Projects:Idilios (my new book) and my next project (Together) to be launch next year.

- Ambitions: "Nothing special: to be young and beauty all life, to have a house near the beach with views to the Pacific ocean, to own a Thunderbird, an individual show at the MOMA... I'm quite normal, I'm afraid."